In the ever-evolving world of winemaking, a vineyard’s reworking is often a strategic decision made to adapt to changing conditions, enhance grape quality, and meet the demands of the market…. It was for a culmination of these reasons that we’ve spent a lot of time reworking our two Clare Valley vineyards.
We bought our first vineyard at the northern end of the Clare Valley in 2007, when we established www.atlaswines.com . Of the 8 Ha under vine at our Atlas White Hut Vineyard, the majority was planted to shiraz but there was also about 2 Ha of cabernet, 1 Ha of semillon and another Ha of chardonnay. It didn’t take long for us to realise that the chardonnay and semillon were not the right choice for us. The cabernet had its own set of problems, there had been a lot of eutypa dieback and it had largely become unproductive. To top it off, the infrastructure in these blocks was aging and there were areas that were poorly set out for modern machinery and vineyard practices. So, we opted to pull these blocks out. We decided to replant these blocks with shiraz and re-work some of the existing shiraz vines to better suit our needs. It was a significant investment and not a job for the faint hearted because although the vines don’t take long to reach the wire, you don’t see the fruits of your labours for many years.
The photos you see here are of the new plantings of shiraz in 2018 and the reworked shiraz vines in the adjacent block, our Hill Block, in 2021. In the Hill Block Shiraz we cut the vine back to a stump and then trained up new shoots from the existing trunks. We were lucky to have had a few mild years for good growth and are pleased with the results so far.
Reworking our vineyard ensures that the vines that yield our favourite vintages continue to flourish and produce exceptional wines for generations to come.
Cheers
AB
